GHAD 062116 - Laserfiche WebLink

assessment ($784 annually) due to the City's ownership of parcels of land within each of these Districts upon which public facilities (such as water tanks and pump stations) are located. Staffs cost to administer these Districts will continue to be funded by the assessments. BACKGROUND GHAD - Purposes and Description GHADs are State-authorized districts which can be formed for the purpose of prevention, mitigation, abatement or control of a geologic hazard. A "geologic hazard" is an actual or threatened landslide, land subsidence, soil erosion, or other natural or unnatural movement of land. Movement of land/damage due to an earthquake is specifically exempted from coverage by the GHAD. GHADs are formed when a geotechnical investigation at the time of development reveals land areas within the development that are unsuitable for housing or other structures due to evidence of prior earth movement and/or the potential for future earth movement. These undevelopable areas in the project are set aside as open space. In these open spaces, based upon the findings of the geotechnical investigation, the developer constructs infrastructure designed to lessen the likelihood that earth movement will occur and damage the areas that are developed with roadways, utilities, housing, etc. The infrastructure includes slope stabilization measures such as drainage V-ditches, pipelines, rip rap armoring, etc. The CHAD is the funding mechanism to monitor and repair (and eventually replace) the infrastructure, and repair soil movement or landslides (should they occur). A GHAD, like any Special Assessment District, is designed to assess property owners for a benefit they receive that is special to them. The developers, in conjunction with the City, created each of the Pleasanton GHADs to operate, maintain, and eventually replace the slope stabilization measures they built as part of their respective housing developments. The developers dedicated in fee title all the open space to the City (in some cases the HOA), and established that the City Council would serve as the Board of Directors of each GHAD. The developers and the Board of Directors established the initial assessments based upon "plan of control" documents created for each district. The plan of control documents utilized each development's original construction plans as the basis for the repair and maintenance plan. The developers also put some funding into a reserve as "seed money" for the eventual capital replacement needs. After establishment of the GHAD, annual assessments have appropriately been collected from property owners at the same time and in the same manner as property taxes. GHADs within the City of Pleasanton There are four GHADs within Pleasanton: Oak Tree Farm, Moller Ranch, Laurel Creek Estates (The Preserve, Oak Hill Estates and Kolb Ranch Estates) and Lemoine Ranch Estates. All of the four GHADs are located on the west side of Foothill Road and in areas where potential geologic hazards exist. All four of the GHADs were created prior to the passage of Proposition 218 in November 1996. All four GHADs have a built-in escalation factor to compensate for inflation; the Engineering News Record (ENR) Construction Cost Index for the San Francisco Bay Area. Page 2 of 5